Shtrawberry. Drinking shtraw as well.

Any time I try and pronounce it with a hard S and not SH, it ends up sounding like a bad 90s parody of a gay man. I practically flounce.

I can't be the only one..

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[–] 22 points 7 months ago

I think you might be the only one ...

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  • [–] 13 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    shounds like a shtupid shuggestion to me

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  • [–] 13 points 7 months ago

    Babes, I think you might be saying it wrong. The s in straw is the same as the s in snake

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  • [–] 12 points 7 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 7 points 7 months ago*

    That's shilly. Jusht shtop.

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago

    Sean Connery? I thought you were dead!

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago

    You're saying it wrong...

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    I very rarely meet anyone who says "truck" - most people I know say "chruck" and when they say "truck" it sounds very forced. Same with other words that start with "tr". They push the word through their teeth rather than putting their tongue on the roof of their mouth.

    Enunciation is key.

    ___

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    This might be a cannabis thought...

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago

    Hmmm... nope.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago* (1 child)

    I think this way of speaking developed in the USA over the last 30 years or so.

    I saw a video about that a few months ago how people seem to put the sh sound into more and more places. Like they don't say stormtrooper, they say shtormshrooper. Can't find it anymore and don't remember the channel.

    To me it sounds weird. We learned this as a distinct difference to German that it's straw and not shtraw, like it would be pronounced in German.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    I've never paid mind to it, but I think I pronounce it like you do. If I focus on not hitting the sh sound it sounds English, my normal accent is West-coast American.

    Straw, strength, strip, all of those words I place a blending sh sound before the tr sound. If anything it might sound closest to 'schrawberry'.

    Interesting! I'll pay attention to how others say it going forward.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Do you have this problem only with "strawberry" or also with "straw" alone? What about other words beginning with str-, like street or straight?

    My first language doesn't have syllable-initial st-, yet pronouncing any of these words is no problem for me at all in English.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 7 months ago* (2 children)

    Shtraw as well. And sthrength. But I can pronounce stuck, stoop, etc just fine. It's "str" that's the issue.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    I prefer spelling it with an extra "Raw"

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  • I mean... If we're talking about changing spelling due to pronunciation, there are other words much more fitting. Enough, women, ambition, etc. That's how we get things like the Ghoti spelling of "Fish." Or, for a Minecraft reference, ghoughpteighbteau instead of potato.

    Language is weird, and it's hard to map spelling to sound 1:1, especially over time

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  • [+] 1 point 7 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago)